anta
Francesca Romana lived at a
time of great violence, in a city filled with violence and
evil. Her monastery, at the foot, of Rome's Campidoglio,
is immaculate and unchanged from her day. The corridor by
her cell is frescoed in grisaille with nightmare visions
she had, like the vision Julian of Norwich also had had of
the Devil at her throat. While the nuns' chapel is
gloriously frescoed in colour with all the tales of
miracles she performed, going about the city, healing its
wounds, its trauma.

How Blessed Francesca while in prayer in her
cell was tormented by demons who beat and bruised her
cruelly.

Come Beata Francesca andando a scaldare il mattone da
mettere nel letto dello sposo infermo si imbatte in un serpente
e ritornando in un leone.
How Blessed Francesca, going to heat a tile to put in her
infirm husband's bed was met by a serpent on her way there
and by a lion on her way back.

Come i demoni si presentano a lei nella cella quando è
raccolta in preghiera, e trascinandola fuori la gettano su un
cumulo di cenere.
How the evil spirits came to her while she was in prayer
in her cell, dragging her from it and throwing her in an
ash pile.

Come il demonio appare alla
Beata Francesca sotto forma di un drago dalle molte teste, e
come San Paolo accorre a salvarla.
How the demon came to the Blessed Francesca in the form of
a many-headed dragon from which St Paul rescued her.

While in glorious colour in the Chapel (no longer in grisaille), we see
all her miracles of healing, amidst the Quattrocento
architecture and culture of Rome. André Vauchez has argued
that Canonization documents are as valid as are
Inquisition ones for studying the Middle Ages, the
Renaissance. Here we see, visually, infinite detail, just
as much as in the Lorenzetti panels to the life of St
Umiltà, that can tell us everything about domestic
archiecture, monastic architectural, church architecture
and their liturgy.

Janni è infermo da
lungo tempo, e la sua gamba è andata in cancrena. La Beata Francesca
mandata a chiamare immediatamente la risana. Questo miracolo
l’avvicina a santa Umilta che risana la gamba in cancrena del
monaco vallombrosano.
Janni had been ill a long time, his leg becoming
gangrenous, and Beata Francesca was sent for who
immediately healed it. In this she is like St Umiltà who healed the gangrenous
leg of the Vallombrosan monk.

Mentre
raccoglie la legna Paolo cade nel fiume annegando. Tirato
fuori dall’acqua oramai privo di vita la Beata Francesca
facendo su di lui il segno della croce lo resuscita.
While gathering wood Paul fell into the river and was
under the water. Pulled out of the water he was seen to
have drowned but the Blessed Francesca, making the sign of
the cross, resuscitated him.

È in questa cappella dipinta con i
bellissimi affreschi che le monache dopo aver superato il
corridoio dei traumi preparano consacrando con le loro preghiere
l’olio utilizzato per la cura e la salute degli infermi così
come santa Francesca Romana ha loro insegnato.
It is in this most beautifully frescoed chapel that the
nuns, after having passed along the corridor of trauma,
make and consecrate with their prayers the oil Santa
Francesca Romana taught them to use in their healing of
the sick.